Black Dynamite

Blaxploitation movies were always good fun. Featuring soundtracks of pure soul and funk, the first films to do so, they exuded a kind of cool that has been increasingly hard to emulate. But not anymore. Who’s the coolest cat to ever walk the street? It used to be Shaft, now it’s Black Dynamite. And he’s tearing up the ghetto in his very own sexy, hilarious and camp feature film.
It would be wrong to simply term this film a spoof, or pastiche of the classic 70s films. It is clear that the writers, Micheal Jai White and Scott Sanders (also the director) grew up watching Pam Grier kick some jive-turkey ass. The original films were usually set in the ghetto, and dealt with pimps, hitmen and drug dealers. Black Dynamite has all three in spades. The eponymous hero Black Dynamite (Micheal Jai White) goes on a crusade for revenge when he finds out his brother was murdered by ‘The Man’, an evil organisation that, along with murdering, gets orphans addicted to heroin and saturates the ghetto with a secret weapon aimed at hitting the black community where it hurts. And oh what a crusade he goes on. A master of Kung Fu, Black Dynamite dispatches Ninjas without breaking a sweat, though woe betide the man who “interrupts his Kung Fu!” As the owner of “12 inches of cold, hard steel” (quote thanks to the trailer) he shoots before he asks questions. And as the baddest cat around he can’t go ten minutes without feeling the need to pleasure some ladies. His quest to take down the man is probably the most fun anyone can have watching a film. And what’s really refreshing is that nothing and no- one is too precious to be made fun of. Even though he’s clearly the coolest man in the movie, when he enters a room a chorus screams: “Dynamite! Dynamite!”, Black Dynamite consistently forgets which country he was tortured in when he suffers flashbacks, and is awkwardly left stuttering when two little girls claim that their mother’s told them their daddy’s name was Black Dynamite: “Err hush up little girls. Lot of cats got that name.”
An enormous success at Sundance, Black Dynamite was also named as one of the Best of the Fest at the Edinburgh Film Festival. You’ll know why before you get to the end of the opening credits. Whilst Black Dynamite encapsulates all that was great about blaxploitation, it also features all that was shoddy about it too. Don’t be surprised when you catch a cheeky glimpse of a boom mike in the middle of a scene, or when an actress’ single teardrop seems to swap cheeks willy nilly. This is all part of this sharp satire that not only shapes an authentic picture of the genre but also helps show the creator’s appreciation of it. An appreciation that is infectious.


By R.M